A satellite or digital cable television system may provide television programs to subscribers of the television system. Typically, satellite and digital cable television systems include a set-top box that receives and decrypts the television signal such that a television program may be viewed by the user. In many satellite television system, the television signal may be broadcast by a satellite, collected by a satellite dish antenna and decoded by the set-top box. In digital cable systems, the television signal is typically transmitted to the user through a cable connected directly to the set-top box.
Many current set-top boxes may also include a digital video recorder contained within, or otherwise connected to, the set-top box. A digital video recorder is a device that may record video and/or audio in a digital format to a disk drive or other memory medium within the device. Through the digital recorder, a user may record a television program to a memory medium so that the program may be viewed by the user at a more convenient time. Recording the program may also allow the user to fast-forward or skip the unwanted sections of the program, as well as rewind to watch the program again. Thus, with the inclusion of the digital video recorder, a set-top box may not only receive and convert the television signal from the television provider, but may also record a television program for later playback by the user.
As mentioned above, the digital video recorder may store the recorded program on a memory medium. In many cases, the memory medium may be a hard drive device that is external to the set-top box but configured to receive the digital information of the recorded program. The external hard drive of the set-top box may be configured to store the recorded programs of the digital video recorder in a convenient device that may be disconnected from the set-top box and easily transported without the need to carry the entire set-top box.